White Room

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	White Room
Original Name	白屋
Type	Artificial talent-cultivation facility 228 323
Founder / Administrator	Ayanokouji Atsuomi 83 237 276
Political Backing	Spearheaded by Naoe Jinnosuke within the Civic Party 323
Purpose	To educate children to the standards of geniuses and cultivate outstanding talent 228 453
Status	Operating after a temporary shutdown; continues sending personnel to Advanced Nurturing High School 382 453 615
First Appearance	First mentioned in Shimizu Akira’s daily intelligence 83

Background / History

The White Room was established a few years after Advanced Nurturing High School. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka identifies it as a project spearheaded by Civic Party power broker Naoe Jinnosuke, under whom Atsuomi once served. Ishigami Kyo suspects that Naoe created it specifically to oppose the Onishima Faction’s school, but presents this as his interpretation of the records rather than a confirmed founding motive 323 453.

Its existence is known among political and conglomerate elites. Some major families voluntarily sent their children there in hopes of producing geniuses; from the children’s perspective, many placements were compulsory. Kiyotaka also states that some children were acquired through illegal transactions 453 531 580.

Naoe temporarily shut down the White Room as a concession when making peace with the Onishima Faction. That interruption gave Kiyotaka an opportunity to escape. By the preparations for his second school year, the facility was again training students and arranging their enrollment at Advanced Nurturing High School 382 453.

Training & Curriculum

Objectives and Standards

• Artificial genius cultivation: Sakayanagi Arisu describes the original goal as raising every child educated there to genius-level standards 228.
• Elite leadership: Instructor Simakden says the institution seeks exceptional young people capable of reaching the top of politics, economics, military affairs, and technology 580.
• Results over individual welfare: Simakden defends the suffering of eliminated trainees as “necessary sacrifices” for the nation’s future 580.
• Obedience and efficiency: Kiyotaka characterizes its principles as obedience, efficiency, and accomplishing tasks by any means necessary—values he says he abandoned upon leaving 580.

Physical Conditioning and Combat

• Trainees undergo compulsory daily exercise from childhood under staff orders 270.
• Diet is strictly controlled in both composition and quantity. Kiyotaka considers obesity incompatible with having been raised there 393.
• Training is delivered by top instructors in their respective fields 436.
• Combat techniques include feints, joint attacks, strikes at vital points, and repeatedly drilled finishing moves 492 498.
• Its curriculum prioritizes shooting, combat, wilderness survival, and intelligence analysis rather than ordinary school club activities 559.

Tracking and Counter-Tracking

• Students learn to read disturbed soil, compressed leaves, footprints, and other signs of movement 477.
• Concealing traces is part of the curriculum, but an unnatural absence of expected traces can itself reveal someone’s passage 477.
• Kiyotaka teaches these techniques to Shimizu while they search for Yagami Takuya on the uninhabited island 477.

Blind Positioning

• This exercise requires trainees to determine nearby people’s number, distance, and activities through hearing alone 483.
• During a lesson, Kiyotaka detects an observer approximately fifty meters away whom Shimizu fails to notice 483.

Trainee Characteristics and Outcomes

Common Traits

According to Kiyotaka, White Room graduates commonly exhibit:

• Strong physical ability and balanced, outstanding skills across multiple areas 393.
• Difficulty adapting to campus life and limited emotional expression 393.
• No identifying brands or burns; Kiyotaka rejects the idea that trainees are physically marked 393.

Limited expression does not mean an absence of emotion. Kiyotaka explicitly states that White Room students have emotions, while Yagami experiences pride, resentment, anxiety, and fear outside the facility’s tightly structured environment 436 483.

Documented Trainees

Trainee	Generation	Documented Outcome
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka	Fourth	The sole remaining graduate from an initial cohort of seventy-four; escapes during the shutdown and resists returning 453 580.
Yuki	Not specified	Eliminated at approximately eight or nine years old after missing an assessment’s passing score by five points. Later develops a mental illness requiring hospitalization 493.
Amasawa Ichika	Fifth	Enrolled as an operative, later betrays the mission and is formally separated from the White Room 382 501 539.
Yagami Takuya	Fifth in the enrollment briefing; sixth in a later assessment	Defeated by Shimizu, subsequently expelled from school, and taken back by White Room personnel 382 498 500 615.
Shiraishi Asuka	Not specified	Identified as originating from the White Room by Shimizu’s intelligence; her assignment is not disclosed 619.

Elimination and Psychological Harm

• Kiyotaka reports that his fourth-generation cohort fell from seventy-four trainees to one graduate. He describes the elimination rate as exceeding ninety-nine percent 580.
• Eliminated trainees suffered mental breakdowns, physical disabilities, inability to adapt to society, and, in some cases, suicide 580.
• Emotional expression was treated as an unnecessary burden. Kiyotaka says prolonged training left him unable to express grief normally 270.
• Amasawa describes lifelong confinement, loneliness, and fear of punishment if returned to the facility 435 518.
• The term White Room assassin does not imply a death-selection program. Amasawa notes that the operatives are still children and that failing an assessment does not automatically mean being killed 499.

Limits of Its Training

• Kiyotaka states that Shimizu surpasses students from every White Room generation in basic physical ability, although their range of learned skills is much broader 267.
• Yagami’s extensive technique cannot compensate for Shimizu’s superior physical capabilities and ability to counter his movements 498.
• White Room experience does not automatically confer mastery of sports-club etiquette or specialized procedures, such as those involved in kyudo 559.
• Kiyotaka’s physical condition declines after several months without systematic training, despite the foundation built during more than a decade at the facility 270.

Personnel and Connections

• Ayanokouji Atsuomi — Founder and administrator. Seeks Kiyotaka’s return and initially regards Shimizu’s influence over his son as grounds for removing Shimizu from school 276 382 413.
• Naoe Jinnosuke — Political figure behind the project; orders its temporary closure during negotiations with the Onishima Faction 323 453.
• Simakden / Instructor Sima — White Room instructor placed at the school as a homeroom teacher. Defends its methods and tries to recruit Shimizu while persuading Kiyotaka to return 404 578 580.
• Tsukishiro Tokinari — Freelancer hired by Atsuomi, not a White Room member. Coordinates its school operation before losing command authority after the island exam 382 501 539.
• Ishigami Kyo — Former subordinate of Atsuomi, but not a trainee. Warns Shimizu about the operatives and supports giving reformable White Room children a chance to remain at school 413 414 531.
• Sakayanagi Narimori — Visited the facility with Arisu when Kiyotaka was young. Recognizes the damage its environment caused him 228 270.
• Tsubaki Sakurako — Opponent who seeks the expulsion of White Room students, including Kiyotaka and Amasawa, because she considers their presence a continuing danger to others 499 615.

Operations at Advanced Nurturing High School

Discovery and Initial Targeting

Shimizu first learns that Atsuomi administers the White Room through his intelligence system. Arisu later reveals its purpose and Kiyotaka’s upbringing, identifying him as its greatest masterpiece 83 228.

Atsuomi comes to view Shimizu as an unexpected influence on Kiyotaka. Although instructions include expelling both students, Ishigami explains that Kiyotaka remains the central target and Shimizu is a variable in the retrieval plan 276 382 413 414.

Covert Enrollment

Tsukishiro briefs Amasawa and Yagami before their enrollment, supplying files on students’ abilities, specialties, and special-exam performances. Their orders are to secure the targets’ expulsion during the first semester, bring Kiyotaka back, and conceal their identities to avoid damaging Atsuomi’s reputation 382.

Amasawa states that Tsukishiro’s removal of Chairman Sakayanagi enabled her, Yagami, and Instructor Sima to enter the school 404.

Island Exam and Defections

Amasawa uses the operatives’ tracking system to help capture Yagami, prompting Simakden to detain her as a traitor. Tsukishiro then uses her threatened return to the White Room to obtain Kiyotaka and Shimizu’s participation in a combat challenge 501.

After the exam, Amasawa is formally recognized as an Advanced Nurturing High School student and no longer belongs to the White Room. Tsukishiro loses authority over its personnel, while Simakden and Yagami remain at school 531 539.

Continued Presence

Simakden’s subsequent recruitment attempt fails when Kiyotaka and Shimizu challenge the institution’s treatment of eliminated children 580.

Yagami is eventually expelled for assaulting Ike Kanji and Kinoshita Minori. Five adult men apparently belonging to the White Room forcibly retrieve him; Shimizu suspects Simakden summoned them 615.

Shimizu later refuses to have Simakden removed solely for his affiliation, arguing that the instructor has not violated teacher regulations. His intelligence also identifies Shiraishi Asuka as another person from the facility 619 626.

Notable Quotes

“The White Room has never existed to train ordinary people.”
— Simakden 580

“I think any place that fails to treat people as people is wrong.”
— Shimizu Akira, rejecting Simakden’s justification of the White Room 580